Brazil's half-year trade surplus reached $28 billion

Brazil's year-to-date balance of trade surplus reached $28.23 billion from January to July this year. The result is the best in the historical series, which began in 1989. Previously, the record was a surplus of $25.19 billion for the January-July period in 2006.

In July, the balance also reported a positive result, with a surplus of $4.578 billion. The result surpassed by 91.9% the $2.386 billion surplus recorded for the same month in 2015.

Data from the ministry show that exports are falling, compared with 2015 and that imports are shrinking in higher rate.

Despite the growth in the balance of trade, based on the working day average balance (trading value for each working day), Brazil's exports fell 3.5% compared with July 2015. Before June 2016, an increase of 2.2% was reported. For imports, the rate dropped 20.3% in daily trading value from July 2015. Compared with June 2016, the fall was lower—3.6%.

The data were released this Monday (Aug. 1) by the Ministry of Development, Industry, and Foreign Trade.

Translated by Amarílis Anchieta